Bitten- Chapter 2
WIP, definitely subject to change
Chapter 2
Unexpected Changes
I could hear the crackling of a fire. I struggled to open my eyes. I felt sore, my body could barely move. It took a lot of effort just to sit up. My head was throbbing. I looked down at my leg. Someone had bandaged it, but who?
"I see you're finally waking up."
She was sitting on a log in front of a burning campfire. Her brown eyes and white hair glistened in the light. She got up, walked over and knelt down on the ground next to me.
"Who are you? Where am I?" I was full of questions.
"My name is Sky, and welcome to my camp"
"Where's Jerry? Where's my brother!?"
"Calm down. You mean the other guy you were with right? He's right there." She pointed toward a tent, ten feet away. "I was down at the river fishing when I found you two. You guys were passed out so I brought you back here." She didn't look nearly strong enough to carry either of us let alone both. "Don't worry he's fine. He's got a large gash on his arm but he'll be okay. Besides, he's the least of your worries."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll find out soon enough" she gave a chuckle. "Here, drink this." handed me a canteen, and went back to the fire. I started to sip the cool water. I drank what I could.
After a lot of effort I was able to stand and walk over to her, slowly and painfully I might add.
"You shouldn't be moving."
I plopped down beside her. "Thank you for bandaging me."
"My pleasure." She said with a wide smile on her face. "Nice night isn't it?"
"Yeah"
"I love the woods" she said, tossing another log on the fire and poking at it with a stick. "I feel free when I'm out here, like nothing else in the world matters." There came a howling from a distance away, and Sky howled back. "I feel at home out here, so close to nature"
I gave her a weird look. She must have loved the woods if she was crazy enough to howl back to a pack of wolves
"You don't think doing that will lead them back here do you?" I asked nervously
"Wild wolves tend to avoid human contact whenever possible, attacks rarely happen." She seemed so sure.
"Right." I could only think of earlier that day, how we were almost killed by a wolf. "Could you explain to me why my brother and I were attacked by what looked like a wolf than?"
She had no answer.
My leg was burned underneath the bloody bandages so I removed them. To my surprise the wound was almost healed. How long was I out? I watched it continue to heal right before my eyes. "What the hell?!"
"So it begins," said sky as I doubled over in pain. She had a smile on her face as she looked at me
My body felt like it was on fire. I tried to stand but it was too much, and I just collapsed onto all fours. Pressure started to build in the seat of my pants, and I could feel it as they ripped at the seam. I looked behind me to see a tail covered in long thick black fur, sticking through
The pain moved its way to my feet. I could feel them get longer, to the point where they were twice the normal length. My insteps started to cramp really badly and I was forced to move to all of my weight onto the balls of my feet. I tried to stand up but I nearly stumbled, due to the awkwardness of having to stand on my toes. Rough padding began to develop as my toenails grew into claws. My feet had changed so much that they now resembled large paws.
I could feel a sharp stinging in my fingertips. I went to examine them and nearly lost an eye as claws, similar to the ones on my toes shot began to grow. I scraped them against a tree and made a deep indentation with very little effort.
The burning pain grew worse and started to spread all as fur began to cover my body. My face and jaw began to crack and shift, and began to push outward forming a muzzle. It felt like someone was ripping my face apart. I screamed but it wasn't human, it was a full lupine howl. My nose and lips were blackening and my teeth grew sharp. My ears started to move toward the top of my head as they grew and became pointy like those of a wolf. Then the pain stopped.
I felt more powerful than I had ever felt before. With my new body I now stood about eight feet tall. The pain of the change was gone, as well as the fever. Right away I noticed that my senses were heightened to a new degree. I could see clearly even though it was the dead of night. I could hear and smell things that seemed to be miles away. It was amazing. I was a werewolf.
"Quite a surprise isn't it?" I looked over to Sky, but in her place with clothes strewn around on the ground, was the white wolf. A sudden realization hit me. My life was forever changed. I was no longer human. I started to flood in anger, anger for the white werewolf standing before me. I was furious, and hungry for blood. I wanted to kill her for what she did to me.
Without even thinking, I lunged at her pinning her to the ground, my long black claws digging into the flesh of her shoulders. "What's happening to me?!"
"You've been given a gift" said Sky with a wolfish grin on her face, her voice slightly deeper in her lupine form.
I screamed at her, "What kind of gift is this?! You turned me into a monster!" I sank my claws deeper into her flesh
"Now, now, you really need to work on your anger issues. The angrier you are the harder it is to keep yourself under control."
I wanted to kill her right then and there, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't rip your throat out right now!?"
"Tell me, do you feel stronger, more powerful?" she asked.
"Yeah, but so what? Because of you I can never go home again." I responded furiously.
"You can, and with my help you can learn to control it, both of you."
I released my grip on her, and stood up. It was hard to do, not being used to my new body, "Control it how?"
"I can teach you, it just takes time and patience."
"Before we go any further, I want to know why you did this to us," baring my fangs at her as I spoke.
She motioned toward the log, and we sat back down. I tried to calm myself down as much as I could, which was much more difficult to do after being full of so much rage.
"Where do I begin?" she asked.
"Surprise me."
I listened as she told her story.
"A little over a year ago, every member of my pack, my entire family was wiped out by hunters. It happened shortly after we had just introduced a new member. We should have known not to let him in but we were too trusting, we accepted him with open arms."
"Who?" I asked
"His name was Marcus. We hadn't even turned him when he betrayed us. He was the first human ever to be made a member of our pack. We were infiltrated, it turns out he was a member of a group of werewolf hunters. He betrayed us. The morning after we had initiated him into the pack, he led his hunting party into our small compound. They took out everyone, Men, Woman, and even the children." She began to cry.
"I was left all alone, as the only surviving member of my family. After I escaped I vowed that I would get my revenge against Marcus and the other hunters for what they did to me and my family. The problem was; I knew I couldn't do it alone, I would need help. I decided I would reform my pack with those that I thought could be worthy controlling the gift." Her tears subsided, her face still glistening.
"Couldn't anyone learn to control it?" I asked
"Not everyone, pureborns learn to control it at birth, but humans that get turned are a different story, they have to be strong willed. For this reason we are choosy about who we turn."
"What would happen if they weren't strong willed?" my ears perked up in curiosity.
After about two seconds of waiting she gave an answer, "If we turned a person that turned out to be weak willed, they would go berserk in a fit of uncontrollable rage, they would hurt anyone around them, whether they were friend or foe. So we have to be careful about who we choose."
"Why did you choose us?" I wanted to know, I wasn't angry anymore but curious instead. Did she really think we were worthy?
"The two of you passed the test."
"What test?"
"I had been watching you two all week. It was when you slept that I performed the test. Pureborn werewolves have a unique gift, we can enter and manipulate the dreams of potential candidates before we make the final decision on whether to turn them or not."
"Wait a minute, you were the wolf in my dreams!?"
"I manipulated your dream so that I could get an idea of whether or not you could handle being a werewolf or not, by showing you what it could be like for you to be one. If you are fearless about the idea, than you are judged as worthy and are brought into the pack. I visited both you and you're brother in your dreams and you both passed with flying colors."
"Wait, Jerry was dreaming of being a wolf too? Why didn't he say anything about it?"
"I don't know, maybe he wanted to keep it to himself."
I could hear Jerry stirring in the tent, he was waking up. I heard moving around as he unzipped the sleeping bag that encased his body.
"I can't let him see me like this, not yet! How can I change back?" I was scared about what his reaction might be.
"Just concentrate, picture yourself human, and your body should change back." She shrank down and looked more human every second until she was back in the form she was when I had first laid eyes on her, still naked and rushing to get clothes on. "Your turn" she said as she turned to me, pulling her shirt over her head.
I myself pictured as a human and was surprised as I could feel my body changing proportion and changing everything to look as I did before my initial shift. After about thirty seconds I was standing there, a person once again, in nothing but my tattered swimsuit, barely wearable.
Jerry came hobbling out of the tent, nearly stumbling as he walked toward us and the log we were sitting on. I rushed over to him putting his arm around my neck to support him as he walked. He was still weak and he felt warm. The same symptoms I was having before I changed. I sat him on the ground by the burning fire. I placed my own body next to him, trying to make him as comfortable as possible.
"What happened?" he asked me. "Who is she?"
"Now isn't the time for questions, you need to relax. You're going to change soon." Said Sky; giving him an explanation without actually telling him much.
"Change? What do you mean change?" he screamed in a lot of pain, it was his turn now to experience what I had not too long before.
I moved hastily away from him, I knew what was about to happen. He was about to go through his first shift. I wanted to know what it looked like at a different point of view. I could only watch in awe as I watched my brother change forms, I only thinking about how he was going to react when it was all over.
As his transformation came to an end, he passed out again from pain and shock. I brought him back into the tent, grabbing the lone sleeping bag rolling it out by the fire. I curled myself in it to stay warm. I watched as Sky changed forms once again, this time into a regular over-sized wolf. She curled up next to me, closely.
"Will I be able to shift into a regular wolf too?" I asked with a yawn.
"Yes, you will."
"Can you teach me?"
"Tomorrow, first let's get some rest. It's been a long night." And with that we both drifted off to sleep.